One
of the biggest highlights of our trip to Ilha de Marajo (see our next-to-last
post for an overview) was our exploration of the mangrove forests lining small
inland channels off the Amazon River.
We took a wooden boat back into the
channels twice, first with a guide who helped us figure out where we were going
and pointed out some of the local wildlife, and the second time on our own,
fortified with a large bag of local mangoes.
Not
only was this Annie’s first trip into a mangrove forest, it was her first
opportunity to stuff her face with mangoes. She loved it.
We had to make sure to time our expeditions with the tides.
The peak of high tide, in the early morning, can be dangerous because a lot of
water is moving into the tangle-y roots and could conceivably take your boat
right in with it.
The low tide, in the
early afternoon, is even more problematic, as the water gets so low that the
root networks are exposed and it’s too shallow to paddle. Thus, we went out
around mid-morning both times. It was cool to watch the tide fluctuate over the
course of our few hours in the water. The exposed mangrove roots were covered
with little crabs scuttling about.
The wildlife and flora were fantastic. Jo was especially taken with the birding. We saw
two species of macaques, a three-toed sloth, orchids, and all kinds of birds,
including several pairs of toucans and one of these odd birds, called a hoatzin,
which hops and scrambles around in the roots like a gangly, clumsy turkey. I
had been eyeing its illustration in my bird book for weeks and was dying to see
it in the flesh.
Hoatzin
Monkey silhouette
Acai at every turn
At one point, we found a little spot of dry land, where we
stopped in hopes of seeing a capybara. Alas, no capybaras—but we did find an
awfully intriguing piece of baby wildlife there instead.
1 comment:
Cute Pictures!
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